stranger things have happened
by Storm racer
Summary: The family are geting ready for Christmas and they want to choose a tree. They Have to go to the Autobot base first and Barricade is hanging around. At the farm an accident is averted by an unlikely character. Who is it? One shot.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own any part of the transformers. Lou, Mick, Marianne, Anna and Clash are my own characters.

I thought that being as how Christmas was approaching it would be nice to put a story in here about the family's first Christmas with Clash and the Autobots. I hope you like it.

* * *

Stranger things have happened.

It was a bitterly cold winter morning when Lou finally stirred. Mick had got up and brought her in a coffee and got the fire burning in the lounge room. It was a Saturday morning and the house was toasty warm. She stretched and moaned as she thought about getting up and facing another morning amongst the throng of stressed shoppers rushing around to get all their Christmas shopping done. She had to tell Clash that he was to spend another morning in the car park.

She looked out of the window across their snowy front yard. Clash wasn't parked in his normal place; they had cleared the garage out for the mech so that he could shelter from the bitterly cold north-easterly wind and the snow and ice. In his place was the snow man Mick had built with the children; his pebble mouth shaped in a perpetual grin. It was a very special time for the family because Marianne was going away to college in the summer to start her course.

She got dressed and made her way down to her husband who was in the kitchen cooking their breakfast. The smell wafted through the house making Lou's stomach growl. She walked up to Mick and her arms snaked around his waist as she kissed him good morning. He smiled as he returned the kiss before the sound of feet thudded through the upstairs of the house and down the stairs. Anna appeared in the door and smiled; her hair in its usual curly mess. Lou looked at her,

"Hi darling," she purred,

"Hello mummy," Anna replied and hugged her parents.

"Daddy, when are we getting the Christmas tree?" Anna asked,

Mick smiled at her and bent down to her level, "I don't know honey, when would you like to get it?"

"Today," she replied,

"Today? We'll have to ask Clash if he can help us,"

"Can Sunstreaker and Sideswipe help us too?" she asked,

"Let's ask them," Lou replied warmly.

Clash was just coming out of recharge when the his radio pinged and the dulcet tones of Ratchet brought the mech out of recharge quicker than he wanted,

"**Hello Clash**,"

"**Hello Ratch, I..."**

"**Ratchet, my name is Ratchet. Not Ratch or Hatchet,"**

"**Sorry...sir,"** Clash replied a little bit more respectfully,

"**Don't do it again," **Ratchet barked, "**I need you back at the base to have a check-up,"**

"**Ratchet can't it wait?"**

Clash heard a silence on the other end followed by a simple, "**No,"**

"**Why not?" **Clash asked,

"**Because you are out in the cold more than any of us and I want to make sure the grit the humans are using on their roads aren't wearing your parts down, Bluestreak needs one too,"**

"**Can't you do Bluestreak's today and mine tomorrow?"**

"**No. I want both of you today. I have kept the day clear so I want you here Clash,"** the sound of an engine roared through the base, "**Ahh here is Bluestreak now, get yourself down here or I'll have you towed in," **_"Goody two shoes!"_Clash thought to himself.

Ratchet heard the light growl emanating through his radio link from Clash and smiled to himself. Clash sat in his garage thinking of ways to get out of his check-up and wondered if Lou needed to go to the mall anymore. He didn't like waiting in the car park but anything had to be better than a check-up with Ratchet. He decided there and then to speak to Lou and beeped his horn. The family had just sat down for breakfast when they heard Clash. Lou looked up wondering what the urgency was; he didn't normally disturb their meal times. She walked through the hallway and down the stairs that would take her into the garage,

"Are you alright Clash?" his charge asked him,

"Are you shopping today Lou?"

Lou was a very astute woman and looked at her guardian suspiciously. He usually complains about her endless shopping trips and the amount of time he spends in car parks, "Why?" she asked suspiciously,

"No reason," he replied,

"Clash," Lou said in her motherly no nonsense I want the truth tone, "Do you have to be somewhere?" the midnight blue four wheel drive slumped on his axles, "I can always call Prime or should I be calling Ratchet?" she said.

Lou knew that Ratchet wanted the mech to have more frequent check-ups and suspected he was trying to get out of one now,

"Shopping can wait, you're going to the base and we're coming with you. We have a favour to ask the twins,"

"Oh what?"

"You'll see," she smiled as she turned around to go and finish her breakfast.

The family drove along the icy roads. Snow was piled up at either side from the snow ploughs which had cleared the roads after the last snow fall the day before. The wooden fences lining the side of the road were covered in snow. Anna thought they looked like icing sugar on top of chocolate cake. Dark clouds loomed on the horizon heralding a fresh fall of snow. Nobody knew of the storm that was coming their way,

"Looks like it's going to snow again," Mick said,

They turned on the path that led up to the base. Mick enjoyed this part of the journey; it always gave him a sense of safety and protection. On this particular journey Lou was relieved to see the base; the forecast had been for blizzards and she didn't want to be stuck in one on the way to the base or home again.

The front had an eerie silence about it. The huge heavy doors that were normally open were closed and nobody was outside. The Autobots weren't bothered by the cold but their human allies were. The mech drove quietly up to the doors which opened automatically to let them in. Clash hoped he'd go in unnoticed but that wasn't to be the case. He had a reputation for avoiding checkups with the medic, some would say he was just as bad as Ironhide ,

Sunstreaker saw him first, "Hey Clash, what's got into your exhaust, you're normally one of the last ones to come here for a check up with Ratchet,"

"Yeah," Jazz replied, "We normally have to haul you in, you're not much better than Ironhide," a warning shot whistled past Jazz and the frontline warriors who ducked as Ironhide growled at his lousy shot. The next thing to be heard was the sound of Ratchet's wrench whistling through the air and clang as it hit Ironhide's helm with deadly precision.

Then the medic turned to Clash pleased to see the midnight blue mech had decided to be cooperative. Then the medic saw Lou and her family and wondered if she had anything to do with him being there so promptly,

"You're losing your touch old timer," Clash said with a smirk. Ironhide walked away grumbling about the younger mechs and how they lacked respect. The medic glared at Clash who decided he'd better keep his mouth shut and go to the med bay. He opened his doors to let the family out,

"Did you need to be escorted by your family?" Jolt teased,

"Shut up," Clash growled not realising who he was talking to,

"Well that's no way to talk to your long lost best friend," Clash looked up,

"Jolt!" he exclaimed, "When did _you_ get here?"

Ratchet moved behind Clash and made a sound resembling a human cough, "We can save the reunion until later. Med bay _NOW_!" the medic barked.

Clash pulled a face and walked toward the med bay, "Thank you for making sure he got here," Ratchet said to Lou with a knowing smile,

"You're welcome," she smiled back.

"Hi Lou isn't it?" a female's voice asked. Lou turned around to find herself looking at a blue transformer with a female voice,

"Yes and you would be?"

"Chromia," she replied and bent down to offer her hand. Lou took it and shook it,

"You're Ironhide's spark mate, nice to meet you," she took Chromia's hand and shook it.

Chromia looked around at the children, "Are these your sparklings?" Lou was a bit puzzled by the terminology and then remembered what sparklings were,

"Yes these are my children," she replied and introduced them. Elita and Arcee walked up behind Chromia. Anna ran toward Lou,

"Mummy, they've got girls voices," everybody laughed at her.

Jazz scooped up the little girl, "Yes there are female Autobots too, L'il lady," he purred, "Good looking, aren't they?" he said looking at Flare up fondly. She smiled back shyly.

* * *

Clash lay back on the berth with his head resting on his hands while the medic scanned and cleaned. His joints were covered in a greasy, salty film and when he transformed he could hear the crunching and grinding. He did have to admit that transforming was slightly painful with all the grit in his joints and gears. The medic walked to the other side of the room and came back with a powerful instrument. Clash looked at it,

"What's that for?" he asked,

"To wash off the grit from your protoform and joints," the medic replied.

He switched it on, a jet of water came out from a nozzle at the end mixed with a special mix the medic had made to clean the mechs from the grime they accumulated. Clash didn't know what to expect and watched Ratchet carefully while he adjusted the nozzle changing the jet of water,

"Stand over there," Ratchet motioned with his hand to an area of the medbay with a drain in the floor. He pushed the nozzle under the mech's armour; it felt a little bit uncomfortable but he tolerated it. The midnight blue mech groaned as the warm water ran through his armour and down his protoform. It felt so good!

"Where did you get this from Ratchet?" he asked the medic,

"Wheeljack made it from a human vacuum cleaner,"

The medic switched it off, Clash moved his arms, they moved freely without the feeling of grinding and rubbing, "Wow Ratchet I feel like new," he said as he continued moving his joints. The medic smiled at the warrior while he enjoyed the clean feeling,

"When did you last have a decent cube of energon?"

Clash shrugged his shoulders, Ratchet smiled at him as he gave him a cube. The midnight blue warrior took it gratefully and took a sip,

"Wow Ratchet this is to Cybertronian standards, almost better actually. Where did you get it from?"

Ratchet smiled, "It's just something Wheeljack and I knocked up from his new distillery he made,"

"I actually feel a lot better," Clash exclaimed, "I'm coming to see you more often,"

Ratchet snorted, "That will be the day, just don't go telling anybody or everybody will be in here. Okay you're done now,"

* * *

Anna walked up to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and poked them. Sunstreaker looked around with disgust to see who had touched his armor, he smiled when he saw the curly haired nine year old,

"Well hello there," he cooed,

"Will you come with us to get our Christmas tree?" Sunstreaker looked at Anna and then at Sideswipe who nodded and smiled,

"Alright then," the yellow warrior replied

"Oh goody," she replied and skipped off happily,

"Mummy can we get the tree now? Sunstreaker and Sideswipe said they would come,"

"Yeah mum," Marianne, clapped her hands and jumped up and down her face full of delight,

"Okay," Lou laughed,

"What's a Christmas tree?" Bluestreak asked,

"It's a tree with decorations on. We keep it in the lounge room and Santa Claus puts presents underneath on Christmas eve," Anna replied happily

"Who is Santa Claus?" Clash asked. This was an interesting earth custom and Clash and Bluestreak wanted to learn more about it,

"He's a man all dressed in red and he's fat and he has white hair and a beard. He has a sleigh with reindeer and a sack full of toys," Anna boasted. Bluestreak looked at her concerned. It seemed very strange to him that Lou and Mick would allow a stranger int their house,

"Does your Mum know about this?" the sniper asked,

"Yeah," the girls laughed, "He brings us presents,"

"But...," Bluestreak was trying so hard to understand this strange earth custom. Ironhide decided he should explain the custom. He walked up to the sniper,

"Don't worry Bluestreak. It's completely safe," he pulled him aside and explained it to Bluestreak,

"But what if he's Decepticon?" Ironhide chuckled as he tried to picture a Decepticon delivering presents to children.

"I hardly think so, it's not their style," Ironhide replied,

"I'm coming too," Bluestreak said, "What about you Ironhide?"

"I have to help the Lennoxes get their tree,"

Mick and Prowl came back to the rec room where everybody was. He looked at his watch,

"We'd better get going if we're to get this tree,"

Clash transformed and opened his doors so everybody could get in while Sunstreaker and Sideswipe checked their rosters asked permission to leave the base. Prowl gave it to them. Outside the wind was howling whipping the snow around in all directions. As the doors to the base opened a gust of wind blew in bringing with it snow,

"Sorry Lou, we're going anywere until this storm has passed," Clash said to his family,

The family got out of the car and gave Clash plenty of space to transform,

"Oh but mummy I want to get the tree," Anna moaned,

"We can honey just not now, it's not safe to go out there," Lou replied,

"You can stay here with us until the storm passes," Optimus said,

"Thank you," Mick replied,

"But that could be ages," Anna whined,

"Sorry Anna there really isn't much I can do at the moment," Lou replied.

Anna went and sat next to Marianne who was sitting in the human area of the rec room and reading a book, she snuggled up to Marianne who wrapped her arm around her younger sister.

The storm went on well into the night; the girls fell asleep in the human area, Lou and Mick sat near the girls, snuggled up quietly watching TV and talking. Ratchet entered the rec room and saw the girls laying there. He went back to the med bay and fetched them a blanket. He put the blanket over the girls and tucked it around them gently so as not to disturb them.

* * *

Crisp, cold air blew in from outside as the doors to the Autobot base rolled open, revealing a white blanket of snow. Fresh snow! It glistened in the sunlight making Anna's and Marianne's faces smiled with delight at the anticipation of getting out there and playing in it. They raced back to where they'd left their coats, hats, scarves and gloves and quickly put them on. They raced outside closely followed by their dad. Marianne saw him and picked up a mound of snow, rolled it into a ball and threw it at Mick. He burst out with laughter as it hit him, and rolled one for Marianne. Jazz chuckled at the family as he watched them from what he thought was the safety of the entrance to the base. Anna saw him standing there and decided to throw one at the saboteur; nobody saw the black weapons specialist come up behind Jazz including the saboteur himself who had bent down to avoid the missile. Anna's face was a look of horror when she saw the snowball hit him squarely in the faceplates.

To say that Ironhide didn't like snow was an understatement. The mech couldn't stand it but he wasn't going to let this opportunity to get theninine year old back pass him. He looked at his cannons and smirked; he trudged out onto the snow and scooped up a handful of snow in his large hand, rolled it and placed it in his cannon. It whirred and out popped a snowball, travelling at a speed a snowball had never done before. He didn't realise Ratchet was watching him. It hit Anna with a Splat! Anna fell in the snow head first. She got back up and looked at Ironhide who was standing in the doorway laughing at her,

"No Ironhide that's not fair," she whined,

"No it isn't," the medic replied as he pushed Ironhide out and then went to Anna, picked her up and placed her on his shoulder,

"Oohh, it's very high," she exclaimed,

"Hold on," Ratchet said as he picked up some snow, and ran after Ironhide.

Anna held on tightly, laughing all the time as Ratchet chased the old warrior through the snow. He raised his arm and threw the snowball at Ironhide. It hit him squarely in the chassis, Anna burst into fits of laughter as he saw the snow ball hit Ironhide,

"That was fun!" she laughed, "Do it again,"

Ratchet shook his head but as he did another snowball hit him, nearlyknocking Anna down. The medic looked at the direction the snowball had come from...Ironhide! He pulled out a wrench from his subspace and covered it with snow. Everybody who watched Ratchet ran out of his line of fire in case they were the ones who were going to be the target for the dangerous snowball. He looked at Ironhide and threw it; before the weapons specialist could do anything the missile had caught his horned head. Ironhide looked at Ratchet dangerously,

"**Don't ever pull a stunt like that again and be in the med bay within half an hour," **Sunstreaker and Sideswipe saw the transaction between the medic and the weapons specialist,

"**Ha ha! Hide's in trouble!"** Sunstreaker chanted to his brother.

Clash, Bluestreak and Jazz made a snowman with the girls while Lou and Mick went inside to warm up. Ironhide went to the med bay to find the medic standing there with his arms crossed and tapping his fingers. He growled quietly and prepared himself for the lecture as Ratchet checked the cannons.

It was gettinglate in the morning and the family wanted to go home via the tree farm. Anna was very excited and jumped into Bluestreak, he chuckled at her exuberance. While Clash was waiting for Lou and Mick his radio pinged,

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and I are coming too. Barricade's signal has been picked up in the area," he sent back an acknowledgement before Lou and Mick arrived. They were not aware of the threat until she questioned her guardian at the reason for Prowl coming,

"Barricade's signal has been picked up, it's just a safety precaution Lou," he reassured her,

"Okay," Lou sat in the back of Clash and tried hard not to worry but it was hard to do. clash picked up on her mood and tightened the seatbelt a little while Mick put a reassuring hand on her knee.

* * *

At the tree farm there were hundreds of trees in all sizes. The children got out first and ran towards the trees. A twig snapped; Bluestreak immediately transformed and pulled out his rifle,

Marianne looked up at him, "Bluestreak, what's wrong," he quickly scanned the area but it was clear,

"Nothing!" he replied and transformed back into his vehicle mode.

The family wondered through the forest under the watchful eye of the Autobots while they chose a tree,

"What about that one over there?" Marianne asked her dad,

"That looks like a fine tree," he said and walked over with his daughter.

Marianne watched him as he put the saw to the tree; her face smiling happily, her cheeks rosy from the cold. The tree started to fall in her direction, Mick watched with horror,

"Marianne, watch out!" he yelled just as the tree was about to hit her. Clash and the others immediately transformed as they heard Mick yell and raced to him. A black and white blur flew past the tree, grabbed the teenager and gently curled his claws around her soft body as he rolled in the snow and came to a stop. Mick recognised the robot to be Barricade,

"Marianne!" he screamed, "Clash help." The Autobots stopped short, transformed and watched prepared to draw their weapons if anything should develop

The claws uncurled and Marianne turned around to find herself looking in the ruby optics of Barricade. She went to scream but the realisation came to her that she was neither dead nor harmed and that the Decepticon had actually saved her life. Mick was dumbfounded. This Decepticon who was capable of killing without thinking twice had saved his daughter's life. The Autobots watched suspiciously while he gingerly stepped toward the giant and held out his hand to Marianne,

"Come on darling," he cooed, "It's alright, you're okay," he looked at Barricade who was looking at Marianne with...tenderness? Was it possible? Could a Decepticon actually care?

"I'd-I'd like to thank you," Mick started to say,

He looked down at Mick who now felt intimidated, "If there is...,"

"No need," the black and white saleen replied as he transformed and sped off into the snow,

The others got to Marianne and Mick, "You alright?" Clash asked as he got down,

"Yeah...yes we are," he replied still puzzled by what had happened,

The tree was secured into Clash and they drove back to the ranch speechless, Prowl in front and the twins behind. A question kept going through Clash's head,

"How are you going to get the tree in the house?"

"Oh Clash," Lou giggled as she affectionately rubbed his dashboard, "We carry it in,"

"Oh but why?" he asked,

"To decorate it and make it pretty for Christmas then Santa Claus comes and puts presents under the tree,"

They drove up the path to Mick and Lou's house,

"Mick I'd like to talk to you about what happened, Optimus will want a report," Prowl said to the still shaken man,

"Okay," he said, "Just one question, why didn't you do anything when he let Marianne go?"

"Barricade never harmed her and I believe that his intention wasn't to harm her. We have known him far longer than you ever have or will,"

"Okay," Mick replied,

"Good, go inside, warm up. We'll be out here for a while just in case Barricade should try to cause any trouble," They needn't have worried though. Hassling the family was far from the Decepticon's mind.

Clash and Bluestreak transformed and went inside with their families to take part in decorating the tree,

"Whose turn is it to put the star on?" Anna asked, they all looked at each other,

"Bluestreak can do it," Marianne exclaimed,

"And Clash can put the lights on," Anna continued.

"Hooray!" they all cheered as the star went up and the lights came on and went into their flashing rhythm.

The End.

* * *

Hope you like it.

Happy Christmas.


End file.
